To begin, i would like to say that I am a huge fan of Grand Theft Auto in general, but i really like the fourth installment of the series on the PS3, and the fact that it's based in New York city made it that much more fun. Then when I heard about all of the mods and such that were available for the PC version, I rushed out to get that one. Before buying the game though I watched different YouTuber's play through the different mods, such as Carmaggedon, and that one specifically blew me away, I knew I had to get the game. So once I got my new laptop back in May, I bought the game for 20 dollars. At first, playing through the game was vary difficult because i didn't understand the controls, but once i got past that barrier, it was one of the best games I've ever played.

GRAPHICS 10/10

The graphics of course are not as good as they were in the newest addition to the series, but they were still amazing. Everything was so detailed in the game and I loved all of it. The cars looked amazing, the buildings all looked beautiful, and the scenery was just stunning. Heck, the game was made many years after Grand Theft Auto III, and I probably would have given that game a 9 out of 10 because even the games by Rockstar all the way back then really looked great. Obviousley, the graphics for this one are so much better, so I would have to give a better grade, and that's just exactly what I am going to do. Sure it's for the PC, so there were a few small problems while playing the game in the terms of looks, but it was all perfect to a point and I am going to give this category a perfect 10 out of 10.

SOUND 10/10

When it comes to the music of the game, I first have to mention the title song, which is my favorite of all of the GTA games because I love it so much. I do like the original version which is great, but my favorite is the version done by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, who labeled it as one of the best video game songs of all time. Then after that, you have the actual soundtrack of the game which is unbelievable. Opposed to the console version, which has 19 radio stations, the PC version of this game has 20 radio station and across all of those stations, there is well over 200 songs to listen to. Of course, they are random, but still just the fact that there are so many songs available makes it great. Then beyond the music of the game, there's the talking. There are a couple radio stations that feature talk shows so you can hear all sorts of different things that are being talked about and then there's the actual voice acting of the game. There's literally dozens of different voice actors throughout the game and all of them do a great job with their roles. Then on top of all that, there's the regular sounds such as cars, gunshots, and more. For the sounds of the game, I have to give it another perfect score.

ADDICTEVENESS 10/10

Right away, I have to give this category a perfect score because it's Grand Theft Auto and that's what you give it in terms of addictiveness because that's what it deserves. Heck, most of the time people playing the game won't even bother with doing the missions and stuff and will just focus on driving around, blowing stuff up, and avoiding the cops. There's so much to do in this game, and it's so much fun to do it because it gives gamers the oppirtunity to do something that they would probably never do in real life so it's

a fun escape from reality. You can steal cars, explode cars, shoot rocket launchers at the moon and chase after trains, but that's just 1 tenth of a percent of all of the awesome things that you can do in the game, and once you complete the game, you may find yourself still playing the game for many extra hours because that's what you do. It's no wonder why I gave it a perfect score, and if I could give it an 11 out of 10, I would.

STORY 9/10

I can't really go over the story in depth because there's simply so much to talk about, but the story itself is really well done and stars Nico Bellic as he enters a new country to live with his cousin. Of course, like always there's a lot of trouble following everybody who he intercts with. In my opinion, the story is huge and with all the side quests and such, the story gets even larger. I never personally finished the game because i kept spending my time doing my own things, but it's still a great story and gets a 9 out of 10.

DEPTH 10/10

When it comes to the depth of the game, only the 5th installment has more depth. The map is huge of course and is based to represent Queens and Brooklyn, The Bronx, Manhattan, and New Jersey and there are landmarks that make the map even larger and more realistic. Then of course you have the assortment of cars which makes the game even deeper and that's great because it makes the game more fun overall. So you have the map and the cars, and then after that you have all of the main missions and side quests. Then on top of all that, the things you can do add even more to the depth, whether it's the asortment of guns and weapons, or other stuff that you like such as bowling and darts. Overall, the depth is wonderful and gets another perfect 10 out of 10 for a grade.

DIFFICULTY 6

The game isn't hard overall because you can pretty much do anything you want, but if you are going to try to beat the full game, it's going to get difficult for some. There are going to be some times when you are going to have to repeat the same mission over and over, and there are going to be plenty of times when you either fall from the sky and go splat, blow yourself up, or be surrounded by cops, so to some, the game isn't exactly easy. All you need to do though is have fun and keep trying because that's what the game's all about. My overall grade for difficulty is going to be a 6.

OVERALL 9/10

Overall, this was one heck of a game, I like this one way more than the console versions because of all of mods and such and all of the new features and of course, all of the cheats that you can use to make the game even more enjoyable. The game was a blast and I'm sure that many other people would agree with that, and to some, this version would be much better than any of the console versions. Overall, the grade for this game is going to be a 9 out of 10.

Fun Fact! Carmageddon is amazing, it's where the physics of the cars are all messed up and whenever something hits a car, it's starts bolting all over the place. At one point, you can have hundreds of cars zipping and flying around you, running up walls, and even going through the walls.

One thing that unnerves me about your reviews is they tend to suffer from what I call "IGN Syndrome".

That is to say, you stick generally to 8-10, and very VERY rarely do you ever go below 8 for an overall score. (This isn't even getting into individual grades).

An example of such is your review on Metropolismania (which I owned and liked as a kid). But even through rose colored glasses, there is no world where it deserves a 9.2/10. It's an example of a niche game that does what it does well, but isn't worthy of a 9+ (which should be reserved for games like GTA V).

I tried finding a single review where you didn't give a game an 8 overall at least, and I flat out couldn't find one. At least, not a recent one. It's upsetting, because I've played many of these games, and while this is just an opinion, it feels you only look to say good things, when there are plenty of problems with each individual game that hold it back from that near perfect level that a 9 deserves, and a high level game that an 8 deserves.

I chose to bring this up on this specific review for no particular reason. I disagree with pretty much everything you said about GTA IV, but that's not the matter at hand.

Admittedly, I had this problem for a while. My last couple of reviews have been positive, but outside of a few 6s and 7s, I haven't really rated anything "poorly".

I feel like your reviews could benefit from being more critical of game flaws. Like Grand Theft Auto IV, for example. You listed pretty much everything as a 10/10, which would imply it is a perfect game, when it is most certainly not. It has aged poorly, and the best games are the ones that remain relevant 10 years down the line... not ones that are obsolete in 5.

Also, though I'm not accusing you of this, it feels like you let a mod sway your opinion a tad, and I'd warn you not use mods when writing reviews, as they generally aren't made by the games developers. A review should reflect the work of the devs, not the community. Maybe a separate review score for some mods would be worth factoring in, since you seem to review mostly PC games.

Anyway, that's it.

legacyme3 : I tried looking at the bad of a game earlier in the year when I did a review of 007 Legends, and I gave it a 6. Though after writing that, it just didn't click with me to keep doing games like that and to have that kind of opinion on them because for me it took all the fun out of writing it. I understand what you mean about the mods, but that's one of the reasons it was so high, I would have never done the console version because I wouldn't have been able to write enough to make it even decent.

legacyme3 : I just stated almost the exact same thing in somebody else's reviews (about so many reviews being too positive because the writers tend to think their jobs are to 'sell' a game.... lol).  So I have to say I agree with you.

zander, Look at your first line, dude.  The 'i' is not capitalized... TWICE! And this happens two more times in the same paragraph, towards the end.  You're going to need to work on your grammar... tsk tsk *wags a finger*  

Under graphics, you typed "Obviousley" instead of obviously, and under sound "20 radio station" instead of '20 radio stations' and "There's literally dozens" instead of 'there are literally dozens'.

These are just a few of the grammar errors.  There are also places where you used the same words and phrases repetitively.

If you can clean up the grammar, this one might be featurable.  As it stands though, there are too many grammar mistakes, and too much unnecessary wordiness. If you need help, just let me know.  

Singelli : Hey, it's not my fault, wordpad doesn't have autocorrect, I said that three times already.

Frankly i think IV was the worst in the entire series, I would give it a 3 or 4.
As for review ratings, I'd be inclined to agree.
I wouldnt rate my favourite games 10, because that implies nothing was wrong with the title.
Equally there are games I like which would be around 6 or 7.

thenumberone : Well, I did say that it was because of all of the PC features as one of the main reasons why I liked it so much. If it was the PS3 version that I was doing, I would have rated 5, 3, and San Andreas all ahead of it.